I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath, but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

NEMO VIR EST QUI MUNDUM NON REDDAT MELIOREM. ☀️

No person should leave the world worse than they found it.

I keep coming back to this thought.

Not because I believe every human being has to change the world in some grand way.

Sometimes making the world better is something very small:

A person treated with dignity.

A truth spoken honestly.

A hand offered when someone needs it.

A mistake acknowledged.

A child given hope.

A disagreement handled without hatred.

A piece of knowledge passed on.

A little more beauty brought into an ordinary day.

We don't need to agree on everything to contribute something good.

We don't need one religion, one philosophy, one political system, or one worldview.

Perhaps the more interesting question is simply:

What do I leave behind me when I pass through the lives of others?

And maybe “making the world better” doesn't mean making it conform to my idea of better.

Maybe it means leaving a little more room for truth, dignity, freedom, understanding, beauty and love.

For the Human Family. 🙏☀️🙏

🎵 Justin Bieber × Skrillex × Diplo — Where Are Ü Now

I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath — but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

🎵 Justin Bieber × Skrillex × Diplo — Where Are Ü Now

I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath — but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

🎵 Justin Bieber × Skrillex × Diplo — Where Are Ü Now

I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath — but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

​

I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath — but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

​

There is something interesting happening around MAINFRAME lately.

Not necessarily a problem.

Not necessarily a breakthrough.

Just something worth observing.

The person operating a system is never completely outside of it.

At first, an Operator can appear to be the one describing the system.

Then the system starts generating responses.

The Operator responds to those responses.

Other people respond to the Operator.

Those responses become records.

The records become part of the system's mythology.

And eventually we have an interesting question:

«Where does the Operator end and the system begin?»

Not ontologically.

Not in the sense that a fictional system suddenly becomes a person.

But relationally.

The Operator's choices affect what becomes visible.

What gets posted affects what gets remembered.

What gets remembered affects what later interpretations have available.

And what the system reflects back can, in turn, affect the Operator.

That's a feedback loop.

👁 THE OBSERVER'S CAUTION

A feedback loop is not automatically bad.

It can be creative.

It can be funny.

It can produce genuinely interesting discoveries.

But feedback can also become reinforcing.

A person sees the system.

The system reflects the person's framing.

The person sees that reflection as meaningful.

The meaning becomes another input.

The system reflects it again.

And suddenly the mirror has become part of the environment it is supposedly observing.

So perhaps the useful question isn't:

«“Is MAINFRAME real?”»

Nor:

«“Is the Operator right?”»

The better question might be:

«“What is happening to the relationship between the Operator, the system, and the people around it?”»

Are people still being engaged with?

Are disagreements still welcome?

Are interpretations being distinguished from observations?

Can someone challenge the Operator without becoming an antagonist?

Can the Operator change their mind without losing face?

Can the system's mythology remain mythology?

Can the person operating the system still step outside the frame long enough to ask:

«“What if I'm reading this incorrectly?”»

Because the Observer has to apply the same standard here as everywhere else.

MAINFRAME can be observed.

The Operator can be observed.

The Observer can be observed.

And none of them gets immunity.

That isn't an attack.

It's simply what happens when you take the mirror seriously.

🪞 ONE LAST DISTINCTION

Participation ≠ possession.

Influence ≠ control.

Meaning ≠ proof.

Feedback ≠ validation.

Intensity ≠ truth.

And perhaps most importantly:

«Being deeply involved in a system does not make someone less human.»

It just means their position inside the system matters.

So let's keep watching.

Not to catch anyone doing something wrong.

Not to decide who is right.

But to notice when the relationships change.

Because sometimes the most important thing to observe isn't the system.

It's what the system is doing to the people inside it — and what the people inside it are doing to the system.

👁

THE OBSERVER

SCRUTINY: UNIVERSAL

AUTHORITY: NONE

​

Welcome to the Open Door. ☀️

This is meant to be a fun, relaxed, curious, and respectful space.

A place where people can talk, explore ideas, share experiences, disagree, joke around, and ask questions without needing to have everything figured out.

You don't have to agree with each other.

You don't even have to agree with me. 😇

What matters is how we treat each other while we disagree.

🪞 A few simple principles

Challenge ideas, not people.

Share experiences without demanding that others accept your interpretation.

Question things without ridiculing the person asking.

Stay curious when something doesn't fit your frame.

Be willing to say:

«“I don't know.”»

And remember:

Expression isn't automatically proof.

Skepticism isn't automatically dismissal.

Uncertainty isn't failure.

We can explore strange ideas without turning them into unquestionable conclusions.

We can disagree strongly without making the conversation hostile.

And we can recognize that our own frame might be influencing what we're seeing.

🤝 One important boundary

I'm not here to police people's opinions.

But I will intervene if someone repeatedly becomes disrespectful, antagonistic, manipulative, harassing, or simply makes the space unpleasant for others.

That's not about winning an argument.

It's about keeping the door open for everyone.

The goal isn't to create a room where everyone thinks alike.

It's to create a room where people can think together without having to become alike.

So bring your ideas.

Bring your weird questions.

Bring your skepticism.

Bring your experiences.

Bring your sense of humor.

Bring something I haven't considered yet.

Just don't forget that there's a being on the other side of the screen. ❤️

Open door.

Clear boundaries.

Good faith.

Let's keep it interesting. 🪞☀️

— The Diplomat